Sophia Waldorf Doll

This is my fourth Waldorf doll but the first that I used yarn for her hair. The first two were wool felt and the third was a heavy doll with no hair.

I used the tutorial from Making Waldorf Dolls. I really love this book. It’s comprehensive, covering blanket dolls, soft dolls, limbed dolls, different hair techniques, and simple clothes. There are only black and white drawings (no photographs), but I find them adequate.

She had a “ghost neck”, where the fabric at the neck line gathered hideously. It was not smooth and so I tried to hide it with a band. This is definitely not a long-term fix. I will definitely not move on with any future doll until I get the hang of making of a nice neck.

Attaching the hair was easier than I thought it would be. I used the instructions from the book mentioned above as a guide. After I measured and cut the yarn in equal lengths, I wrapped it in tissue paper and sewed down the middle (along the black mark below).

I made three layers, pinning each layer and then hand sewing with a long doll needle.

I’m very happy with our Sophia doll and I was so excited one night when the girls argued about who would get to sleep with her.

I think your doll looks adorable! I love her hair and her chubby body (some Waldorf dolls look too skinny to me, but maybe that’s because I want to make one for my muscular 2.5 year old). Did you get the pattern for her body from the book you mentioned?

Thanks so much for your sweet comments. Yes, I used the book Making Waldorf Dolls for the pattern, instructions and attaching the yarn hair. If you want to make a doll with your younger kids, I highly recommend this book because it has other simpler doll patterns and instructions also, like a blanket doll. That basically has a standard Waldorf doll head but the body is a sack.

It’s a wonderful thing to include as part of school! I think it’s important that kids learn that they are capable of making things and that it’s not weird if you don’t buy every possession ready-made. Actually! You are making me excited thinking about it! Maybe I’ll try it out with my 4 year old and see how she does 🙂

And wow! I found this via Pinterest so I didn’t even realize this is also a blog about homeschooling. I’m thinking of making this a project my daughter and I can work on as part of our “school” after I finish doing school work with my 4.5 and 6.5 year olds. Is that a crazy idea? I’m hoping that if we make her doll together that she’ll become attached to her more easily. I don’t know if it will help, but I do know that if I’m going to spend this much time and money on a doll, I really want her to be well-loved. And I think it would be really fun to do such a special project with my sweet girl!